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For those who have read Definitely Maybe by the Strugatsky brothers or know a bit about 1970's Russia, the Brezhnev Era or how the Mikhail Kheifets case with Boris Strugatsky testifying as a witness:

What served as an influence or inspiration for the themes and characters of this novel?

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    What is it exactly you want?
    – Gallifreyan
    Commented Dec 5, 2017 at 4:55
  • A bit of context here but i think you'll have more luck on other sci-fi forums, or perhaps on literature.SE
    – user68762
    Commented Dec 5, 2017 at 12:13
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    Where the heck did the "definitely maybe" come from in English Wikipedia??? The official name of the book is "За миллиард лет до конца света" (A billion years before the end of the world") and a subtitle is "Рукопись, обнаруженная при странных обстоятельствах" ("A manuscript discovered in strange circumstances").
    – DVK-on-Ahch-To
    Commented Dec 7, 2017 at 14:35
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    And the Kheifets case definitely had an impact; from BNS interview: web.archive.org/web/20140219172940/http://www.rusf.ru/abs/books/…
    – DVK-on-Ahch-To
    Commented Dec 7, 2017 at 14:51
  • @DVK-on-Ahch-To Haha, yes. When i saw the question with the unfamiliar title i hoped it was a book of the brothers i missed and now i get to read it. But at least to hungarian it was translated correctly. My dad had a copy. About the interview - it does answer the question, but i am not sure OP knows Russian. ..
    – user68762
    Commented Dec 7, 2017 at 15:45

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Malyanov (with his living apartment) was inspired by Boris Strugatsky himself.
Vecherovsky was inspired partly by Yuri Manin and partly by certain (unknown to me) physicist.
Snegovoy was inspired by the rocket engineer (and writer) Alexander Meyerov.
The case of Kheifets, of course, served as the inspiration for all the “characters under pressure” stuff.

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